Ponce Cement

in Barrio Magueyes Urbano (the plant is now owned by CEMEX) The municipality of Ponce was the perfect place to establish a cement plant, as the type of soil needed for cement production is abundant in the region. After founding the Puerto Rico Iron Works, and the El Dia newspaper, Empresas Ferré entered the construction business with Ponce Cement, Inc., and subsequently with Puerto Rican Cement, Inc. Over the 1940s, the company enlarged and Luis A. Ferré became its chief engineer. By 1960, the company had become the leading cement supplier on the island, much of it the result of increasing new highway and housing construction projects spreading throughout the Island. ==Approvals==

On February 23, 1989, the Ponce Cement plant received approval for conversion from a wet to a dry manufacturing process, which allowed it to almost double its output. As of year 2000, cement was Puerto Rico's leading nonfuel mineral commodity. ==See also==